A Cook County judge said Thursday she will rule by July 21 on whether a petition-driven proposed constitutional amendment aimed at taking much of the politics out of the redrawing of legislative districts will appear on the fall ballot.

Regardless of Judge Diane Larsen's decision, attorneys on both sides of the case ultimately expect it to end up before the Illinois Supreme Court.

The Independent Map proposal, which has gained enough signatures to qualify for a spot on the Nov. 8 ballot, would create a multistep process in which an 11-member board, including representatives of the four legislative leaders, would be charged with drawing new boundaries for Illinois' 118 House and 59 Senate seats after the once-a-decade federal census.

Seven votes would be needed for approval of a new map, including at least two members from each political party and three independents.

But the process for getting petition-driven proposed amendments on the ballot is extremely limited to only those affecting both "structural and procedural" changes involving the General Assembly. A similar proposal was rejected by a judge in 2014 because it would have unconstitutionally created new qualifications for serving in the legislature or on the courts by imposing a ban on commissioners serving in public office.

Attorneys on Thursday delivered oral arguments for about 90 minutes in a Daley Center courtroom.

Mike Kasper, longtime ally of House Speaker Michael Madigan and general counsel for the state Democratic Party that Madigan chairs, is the lead attorney for the People's Map group challenging the Independent Map effort. People's Map, a group of prominent racial and ethnic minorities, has contended the proposal would hurt minority legislative representation.

But in his arguments against the proposal, Kasper contended the Independent Map plan "fails because it does too much. It fails because it does too little."

Kasper argued that provisions in the proposed amendment giving the state's auditor general and two justices on the Supreme Court additional duties represented the same fatal flaw as the previous effort: they're an overreach and affect other parts of the state constitution beyond the section dealing with the legislature.

At the same time, Kasper contended the proposal did not do enough to change the "basic structure of the General Assembly as an institution."

But Michele Odorizzi, a partner at Mayer Brown and lead attorney of the Independent Map team, argued that adding duties to other constitutional officers was not the same as the previous failed effort that attempted to change qualifications for office.

Odorizzi contended the redistricting process was at the very heart of making "structural and procedural" changes in the legislature because "legislative districts are the building blocks … that determine the makeup of the General Assembly."

Odorizzi said the amendment's proposed changes all flow from the "structural and procedural" redrawing of boundaries and were not tied to unrelated issues. She also noted the constitution assigns duties to officials throughout the document, not just in the section that deals specifically with their offices.

But Kasper noted to the judge that the 1970 Illinois Constitution that assigned various duties throughout the document was written by an elected constitutional convention which was not limited to the narrow scope permitted for a petition-driven amendment.

The fate of the map amendment is being watched carefully by Republicans and Democrats. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has backed the proposal, though he did not initiate it, as part of his "turnaround agenda" in working to erode the power of Madigan and Democratic super-majorities in the House and Senate.

Democratic lawmakers drew the current map following the 2010 census and it was signed into law by Rauner's predecessor, then-Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 01, 2016, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Redistricting court ruling due by July 21 - Judge will decide if remap proposal makes Nov. 8 ballot" —
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